Girls And Boys Come Out To Play - The Nursery Rhyme Collections

The Nursery Rhymes Collections 1-4 contain a total of 277 children's songs. Each double CD album showcases the highest quality children's music ever recorded with a total playing time in excess of 10 hours!

Girls And Boys Come Out To Play (Full Audio and Lyrics)

Girls and boys
Come out to play
The moon does shine
As bright as day
Come with a whoop
And come with a call
Come with a good will
Or not at all

Loose your supper,
And loose your sleep,
Come to your playfellows
In the street
Up the ladder
And down the wall
A halfpenny loaf
Will serve us all.

But when the loaf is gone,
What will you do?
Those who would eat
Must work, it is true
You'll find milk
And I'll find flour
And we'll have pudding
In half an hour

Girls and boys
Come out to play
The moon does shine
As bright as day
Come with a whoop
And come with a call
Come with a good will or not at all.

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This song was released on The Nursery Rhyme Collection 2

Find this children's favorite on ‘The Nursery Rhyme Collection 2’ and also on our latest release ‘30 Best Traditional Nursery Rhymes For Children’

Origin and background

This is one of the truly historical nursery rhymes dealing with child poverty and child labor. The same subject is found in other traditional nursery rhymes (e.g. Little Tommy Tucker). During daytime many children had to work to earn their livings (those who eat must work, that's true). For playing only the evening hours were left (the moon does shine as bright as day). It is not quite clear if the children in this rhyme miss their supper (loose your supper) because they prefer to play instead or if there simply wasn't any supper because they couldn't afford it. The verse "a halfpenny loaf will, serve us all" suggests that there was only very little they had to share. But nevertheless the rhyme sends out an encouring message: No matter how little we have, if we stand together we can handle the situation (you find milk, and I'll find flour) and we can even enjoy ourselves (and we'll have pudding in half an hour).